Medical Decision Making

The University of Pennsylvania has an extensive program in medical decision
making involving faculty and students from the School of Medicine, the
Wharton School, and other Schools and Centers around the campus. Faculty
strength is broad, deep, and interdisciplinary. As evidence of this, many
faculty have joint appointments across schools.

One area of interest centers on normative studies of medical decision
making, including decision analysis, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness
analysis, and health economics. Another area of interest centers on
descriptive studies of judgment and decision processes--specifically, how
patients, physicians, and other health care providers make medical
decisions under conditions of risk.

Ongoing projects include studies of the appropriate allocation of
transplantable organs and other scare resources; the decisions made near
the end of life; clinician-patient communication and informed consent; and
the financing, delivery, and organization of health care systems.
Investigators with these interests benefit from affiliation with several
nationally renowned university centers, including the
Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, the
Center for Bioethics, the Center for
Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and the Center for Risk and
Decision Processes.

A particular strength of the program in medical decision making is its
emphasis on post-doctoral training. A variety of post-doctoral fellowship
programs are available, largely supported through the affiliated Veterans
Affairs Medical Center located on campus. These programs include:

Post-Doctoral Program in Health Services Research. This program supports
one to two-year post-doctoral fellowships for U.S. citizens who have
completed their Ph.D. in economics, psychology, sociology, or a related
field. The goal of the program is to help these individuals develop
expertise in health services research. While most of the post-doctoral
trainees in this program concentrate on medical decision processes, some
have used the time to develop skills and expertise in clinical economics or
medical sociology. Contact Martha Trudeau
(martha.trudeau@va.gov).

Fellowships in General Internal Medicine. These programs support one to
two-year fellowships for physicians who have completed residency training
in internal medicine and plan careers in academic internal medicine. Many
fellows use the program to develop skills in medical decision making,
medical ethics, health care management, or medical education. Contact Ms.
Beryl Miller (215) 662-3797.